Agreement on proposals to introduce a European level digital tax was not achieved at a recent gathering of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (“ECOFIN”). The focus of EU efforts to impose some form of digital taxation has now shifted to working on the EU position in international discussions on digital tax led by the OECD.

According to the ECOFIN press release, “the discussion revealed that despite the broad support from a large number of member states on this text, some delegations maintain reservations either on some specific aspects of the proposal or more fundamental objections.”

Ireland and Nordic countries opposed the introduction of a digital tax at EU level while EU states, such as France, Italy, Britain and Spain are in the process of introducing some form of digital tax at national level